Well, this is a nice Monday morning treat isn't it? Peep the new visuals from James Blake for his cover of Joni Mitchell's track, "A Case of You". It features on his ever beautiful sounding EP Enough Thunder which you can go grab a copy of over here. The video itself was filmed just last week in London and features actress Rebecca Hall who you may recognise from Frost/Nixon and The Prestige, or maybe you don't, who am I to say that. Anyway, it turned out that she's a huge Joni fan and loved James' cover of the track so jumped at the chance to work on it with film maker Seb Edwards. So there you have it, that's enough words, time for the visuals. Hit play at the top.
Régine Chassagne is front and center in Arcade Fire’s new video for The Suburbs‘ “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains),” which sort of plays like a constantly refreshing hi-res GIF. And, as Arcade Fire is wont to do, they give you a different, interactive look over at the website they’ve set up for the video, where, by enabling your camera, you can trigger the video with your hands. Even though I haven’t quite figured it out yet, I appreciate anybody trying to tweak the format a little, you know? Push it to the limit! Check out the video’s teaser video, after the jump.
Credits: Music by Arcade Fire - Win Butler, Will Butler, Régine Chassagne, Jeremy Gara, Tim Kingsbury, Sarah Neufeld & Richard Reed Parry Director - Vincent Morisset (AATOAA)
The teaser: Arcade Fire - Sprawl II Invitation (Dance)
Video Produced by Marissa Nadler and Alec K. Redfearn Directed, Photographed and Edited by Alec K. Redfearn Art Direction by Marissa Nadler, Alec K. Redfearn and Ryan H. Walsh
It’s here! When LDR first mentioned that the video for “Born To Die” featured a tiger in its cast, she was actually being modest. The clip actually has two tigers, as well as a cathedral, a slo-mo flaming-wreckage shot, and a ton of makeout scenes with the Tommy Lee-looking guy from the topless flag-fluttering video (model Bradley Soileau). Woodkid (Yoann Lemoine) directs…
Blonds' Promotional Music Video for the song "206" — the full version is available on their new EP, Dark Roots — a song that simmers without ever really exploding. I can’t really tell what’s going on — the video is barely lit — but it’s NSFW because of bras.
The 2012 Vimeo Festival + Awards celebrate the best original videos online.
This time around we're honoring videos (and their amazing creators) in 13 categories, including four brand spankin' new ones. And because we believe creativity should be rewarded, we're giving away $5,000 grants to category winners and one $25,000 grand prize, all to help recipients make new work.
Digital Domain and Neil Huxley (Mothership) crafted this stunning teaser for Activision and High Moon Studios’s”Transformers: Fall of Cybertron” title.
Trent Reznor and Karen O interpet Led Zeppelin’s iconic “Immigrant Song” in this music video, masterminded by the wizards at Blur.
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' soundtrack for David Fincher's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, is out now digitally. It features a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" featuring Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O. The creepy, mysterious video for the song features a collage created by Fincher for the title sequence of the film.
Each year, the Internet gives us countless new ways to bring productivity to a grinding halt, most often in the form of WTFs, LOLs and FAILs. 2011 was no exception, producing some of the most awesome, annoying, catchy and otherwise adorable videos. Here are our 10 favorites:
10. Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, Two The original Marcel the Shell with Shoes On video pitter-pattered her tiny way into our hearts last year with its droll, introspective examination of life on the tiny scale. The sequel taps into that same vein of comedy, the one that makes us love “Parks and Recreation” so much, this time as Marcel explains the hardships of life as a shell.
9. Official Ojai Valley Taxidermy TV Commercial The Chuck Testa video burned through the life-cycle of a meme faster than ever before, starting at instant classic, hitting critical mass and finally settling in overused anguish all in the span of a few days. The video itself was an exercise in viral marketing, having been created by Youtube personalities Rhett and Link for their IFC show Commercial Kings.
8. Songify This: Can’t Hug Every Cat
Oh, Internet. What would you be without teary-eyed cat lovers? Thanks to the Gregory Brothers (you know, the kids behind Autotune the News and the Bed Intruder Song) this eHarmony online dating video transformed into a catchy, kitty-fueled tear-jerker. It’s a sad tale, she loves cats so much, but she can’t hug every cat.
7. Madeon – Pop Culture
17-year-old French pop-mashup prodigy Madeon took the Internet by storm with his live mashup “Pop Culture,” seamlessly blending samples from 39 different tracks into this three-minute pop-mash paradise.
6. 3-Way (The Golden Rule)
Andy Samberg’s Lonely Island musical-comedy SNL spinoff very much exemplifies the term “hit or miss.” The difference between a miss and a hit? Turns out, it’s Justin Timberlake. Samberg and Timberlake’s characters from the original “Dick in a Box” skit return, this time to indulge in a Summer-lovin’ fueled Lady Gaga sandwich. Remember, with a honey in the middle there’s some leeway.
5. Neil Patrick Harris’ 2011 Tony Awards Opening Number
Barney Stinson may be one of our favorite on-screen characters, but his real-life counterpart Neil Patrick Harris is just as awesome. NPH opened this year’s Tony Awards with this spectacular musical number entitled “Broadway: It’s not just for gays anymore.”
4. Trim
This video popped up on Reddit a few months ago with a simple headline: “My friend wanted to shave his amazing beard. I said ‘okay, but let us shave it in style.’" The result is this 43-second video of a man transforming before our eyes from a skinhead to a mountain man, pausing at pirate, punk, biker and more on the way.
3. Sexy Sax Man Careless Whisper Prank feat. Sergio Flores
“Hey play that George Michael song real quick!” “It’s okay, he’s with sexysaxmansaxograms.com” “Sorry guys, this is saxophone superstar Sergio Flores.” This video prank from Youtuber “Mike Diva” features self-proclaimed sexy sax man Sergio Flores skillfully serenading scores of shoppers and students alike with his sexy saxograms. George Michael would be proud.
2. The Crazy Nastyass Honey Badger
There was a moment earlier this month as I sat watching the 2011 SEC Championship football game, when I thought to myself, are the announcers really discussing a Youtube video about a badass honey badger right now? Their reason was to reference the nickname given to LSU cornerback Tyrann Mathieu, inspired by the video in question. It was in that moment I realized just how popular the Honey Badger had become. Watch the video and you too will understand just how badass the Honey Badger is.
1. Nyan Cat
Of all the memes and viral videos of 2011, none have seen the instant popularity and ubiquity of Nyan Cat. The formula: an animated cat, a pop-tart for a body, flying through space with a rainbow trail, all set to a repetitive, mind-meltingly catchy song. The result? Cuteness overload, and more than 52 million Youtube views of the original video alone, not to mention countless spin-offs and parodies. We welcome our adorable kitten overlords.
Dishonorable Mention: Rebecca Black’s “Friday”
This year’s dishonorable mention belongs to none other than Rebecca Black and her horrifically catchy video “Friday.” The lyrics are abysmal, the music cringe-inducing, the video poorly-produced, yet we know every damn word.
Even though the Montreal's electronic band Misteur Valaire already had a video for their amazing track "Dan Dan", Paf Paf, a french independent group of CGI designers made another one on their own initiative.
Wake up for happiness and Christmas by this nice pop rock song from San-Francisco based band “Train”. Recently this (but not from the Train) song was used in Coca Cola commercial “Wake up for happiness”.
Because they put out one of the best albums of the year, we’re going to give Fucked Up a pass for video-encompassing nonchalance in the clip for “Turn The Season.” It was apparently shot during the initial photo session for David Comes To Life, so that explains all the cameras and ballerinas and non-smiles from the band.
New York synth-disco duo Holy Ghost! recently dropped their cover of the early ’80s Ministry nugget “I Wanted To Tell Her.” Now their version the song has a video, in which director Ben Fries recreates an ’80s-movie dance party in all its neon glory. There’s also some sort of plot, but good luck following it. The Juan Maclean and LCD Soundsystem’s Nancy Whang, both of whom guest on the song, make appearances in the video, and Whang’s stuntwoman gets to bust out some impressive BMX tricks for absolutely no tangible reason. It’s a fun video! Ben Fries directs.
Major Lazer – “Original Don” (Dir. the Partysquad)
In which a head-spinningly weird viral video is perfectly created, with its original participants all present, and transformed into a perfectly functional music video. Diplo looks perfectly at home in this absurd little house, and I’m not entirely certain what this says about him.
This Angry Birds parody trailer looks like it was made by Guy Ritchie, and really has nothing to do with the video game aside from the whole “pigs snatch their eggs, so the birds get revenge” dynamic. But it’s sexy, funny, and really slick looking for a comedy short.
Watch: First Teaser Trailer for Will Smith's New 'Men in Black 3'
"Who are we? We are no one." Columbia has unveiled the first teaser trailer this morning (via YouTube) for Men in Black 3, the latest sequel in the MIB sci-fi comedy series, once again starring Will Smith as Agent J, and introducing Josh Brolin as the younger Agent K. Oh and "Agent K" is definitely still in this, Tommy Lee Jones' K, only briefly though. We've heard this sequel has gone through a lot of production problems and it shows, this looks a bit rough, almost made-for-TV. What happened? The first movie was so damn good, how did it devolve into this? Give it a shot anyway, I truly hope it turns out better next summer.
Men in Black III is once again directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, also of the first two. This newest sequel is said to be set mostly in the year 1969 and involves Agent J (Will Smith) time-traveling back to that year, where he meets up with a young Agent K (Josh Brolin) for some plot involving, most likely, our landing on the Moon. The cast also includes Emma Thompson as Agent Oh, Alice Eve as a young Oh, Bill Hader, Jemaine Clement, Rip Torn and Michael Stuhlbarg. It was shot in 3D and Columbia currently has it scheduled to hit theaters starting May 25th next summer. You can visit the official site: TheMenInBlackSuitsAreReal.com.
The Australia-born, New York-based bedroom popper Young Magic has a new video for the song “Sparkly.” Filmed on Australia’s East Coast by director Dylan Wiehahn, it’s a gorgeous mess of time-lapse cloud-billowing and swirly colors, all of it offered without context but unbelievably pretty regardless.
Electro-pop mainstays Goldfrapp have a new greatest-hits compilation coming out, and it features a deeply pretty new track called “Yellow Halo.” The song’s video is a sort of meditative travelogue about the band, following them as they stare languidly out of airplane windows and step onstage at massive festivals. Lisa Gunning filmed the entire thing on an iPhone.
Few things conjure carefree vibes like the words “young,” “yesterday,” and “skateboard,” so mathematically speaking the video for “As Young As Yesterday,” which focuses on one juvenile skateboarder gliding his troubles away, is the most relaxing thing to happen to you all day. It is also black-and-white and rather uneventful.
Directed by Marcus Söderlund. Cinematography by Daniel Takács // Skate by Nisse Ingemarsson
I can’t think of a better way to re-envision a classic tale like “Of Mice And Men” than to cast an orc and goblin as the two main characters, throw them into a fantasy world, then let the orc kick some human tail in the name of freedom. Just don’t let him near any puppies!
CREEP hones in on an eerie, spectral pulse in their video for “Animals,” where the music of duo Lauren Flax and Lauren Dillard teems with a violent, dark vibe. It probably won’t surprise you that they’re the ones who came up with the term “rape gaze.” Holly Miranda gives us, um, a new look as Creep employs another prominent guest vocalist for “Animals.” Greko Sklavounos directs.
Tom Blyth's debut music video for Internet Forever's morbid melodic pop track Break Bones, combines performance, animation and overlays in a Meso-American feast.
Written and recorded during the Whip It On sessions in 2001 in Copenhagen, The Raveonettes' Christmas Song was never intended for release. It eventually ended up as a B-side to their Heartbreak stroll single and quickly became the bands biggest selling song to date. The video was recorded in Sune's NYC apartment. According to the band there was supposed to be a guy dressed up as a homeless Santa but he never made it.
4. Handsome Furs – “Serve The People” (Dir. Han Xia)
If this video about an everyhipster’s struggle against day-to-day drudgery were filmed in Europe or even America, it’d likely still be pretty good; the economic storytelling and well-composed cinematography would see to that. But since it was filmed in China, it also works as a fascinating glimpse of how people live when they’re attempting to live the kind of lives that we take for granted but doing it on the other side of the planet.
A fun, evocative, fast-moving time-lapse travelogue of Florida that almost makes that ridiculous state look like a nice place to be. Almost. Directed by Drew Blatman (Sunset Television/Weird Days).
Shabazz Palaces’ new music video isn’t for a particular song off of their album Black Up; it’s for the entire album, or at least as much of it as they can fit into five minutes. The video weaves clips of music from many of the album’s songs into a visual tapestry full of gorgeous isolated images and big, sweeping Race-In-America type themes. Like the album itself, it’s as oddly beautiful as it is disorienting, and it takes on a whole lot of ideas but even more feelings. It’s pretty great. Khalil Joseph directs, and you should really seriously.
The Killers star in a Christmas-themed spaghetti western set in old Las Vegas. Bandits and extraterrestrial robots round out the cast in this holiday spectacular. Director: Robert Schober.
When most-recent BTW Beacon aren’t walking their sense for sensual R&B through a long, luxe hall lined with Warp LPs and bass music mixtapes, they work together at their own video production house. They’ve hand-crafted this video for “See Through You,” explicitly as a hat-tip to the “intuitive and passionate” genre of amateur-made videos, and certainly as a hat-tip to explicit imagery of CGI ladies riding poles and jiggling in bikinis. There is no nudity, but there are some cyber-thongs, so let’s call this one NSFW.
YACHT’s video for the cowbell-happy track “I Walked Alone” is a pretty simple affair. Throughout most of it, the Portland synth-psych duo are the only folks on camera, and it relies entirely on the gawky charisma of the two people in the group, as they cavort through a remote mountainous plain and an all-white room. Toward the end, we also see what look like a death cult’s devotional exercises. Mitchell Davis directs.
Lou Reed & Metallica: The View Directed by Darren Aronofsky
When Loutallica met with director Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan, The Wrestler) in the Bay Area last month, they were supposed to shoot a video for “Iced Honey.” Instead they made a video for single “The View.” Not that it matters if you watch it on mute.
Remember when Saturday morning cartoons were full of fantasy adventure? This throwback Skyrim cartoon by Harry Partridge reminds me of watching the Dungeons and Dragons animated series as a youngster, with eyes full of wonder and monster manual in hand.
The moral of the story is: if you are going to sail off the coast of Wales on December 5th, you may want to change your name to Hugh Williams. But is this a true story? Any records from these incidences seem to be at least second-hand. I found a post at The Scuttlefish that may shed a bit of light on how “coincidental” the story really is. And be sure to check out the comment from Hugh Williams. Link
Kids wiling out; a thematic appeal that shall never die out. The new video from Cymbals Eats Guitars for “Keep Me Waiting” features a lot of smashing, punching and running by bored teens. Directed by Adam Kurland.
Caged Animals debut LP for the UK’s Lucky Number label, Eat Their Own, was recorded at home in Bushwick, with a generous serving of pitch-correcting vocal software, modern R&B balladic sensibility, and cross-generational lo-fi slack and chirps. There’s a palpable, slightly off-kilter sweetness at the core of the Animals’ single “Piles Of $$$,” and so having its video directed by quirk auteur Ace Norton was a smart play. Norton has lead man Vincent Cacchione and partner/bandmate Magali Charron cast in a Bonnie & Clyde type situation, the couple cruising around with piles of $$$ on a melodramatic shopping spree. I particularly respect how Ace embraces the most potentially difficult, off-brand lyric — shot here in a scene where Vincent sings “I want to rock with you tonight” while sitting glumly on a gas pump stoop — which is precisely what makes him a maestro of earnest awkwardness.
Philly retro rockers Dr. Dog are nothing if not consistent tweakers of their revivalist anthems; their last two LPs, Shame, Shame and Fate try on different hats, ranging from Beatles-y melodies to psyched out singalongs. Now Dr. Dog has been together for over a decade, and the formula still works on the first track from their new LP, “That Old Black Hole,” a song that hones in on a warm groove early and throws waves of melody and fuzz on top. It’s delightfully old-school.
Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor, the man masquerading as CANT, has made a video for “Too Late, Too Far,” one of the pheromone-soaked polyrhythmic slinkers from his debut solo LP Dreams Come True. The Richard Peete-directed clip opens with some “Vomit“-esque automotive chic, and then some mystic woods, cinematic smoke, VHS weirdness and fabric monsters take over, making it like David Lynch directing a We Are The World video siphoned through an analog filter. It’s not weird nightmare material at all!
